Rome and Jerusalem: A Study in Jewish Nationalism

This is the book that ultimately led to the creation of Israel. European Jews had been vilified and persecuted for centuries, and Moses Hess discussed it long before the rise of Hitler and Nazism. He believed that the Jews would always be homeless, unwelcomed people unless they had their own country, and was the first to introduce the concepts of Zionism, and the first to call for the foundation of a Jewish socialist commonwealth. Hess blends secular and religious philosophies, Hegelian dialectics, Spinoza's pantheism, and Marxism into philosophical ground for Jewish Nationalism. He explains why the Jewish race is indestructible, and that the only solution of the Jewish question lies in returning to Palestine. Hess is prophetic in his writing. "Rome and Jerusalem belongs to the very few books which are written in advance of their time." He paints a vivid picture of 20th century Jews in Europe and provides you with an eye-opening display of the intellectual and religious unrest in Germany at the time. "The ideas expressed in it are valuable, not only as a foundation of the philosophy of Jewish Nationalism, but also as a contribution to human thought in general."